HIS 2132A
From Coney Island to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills:
The History of American Popular Culture
Department of History
The University of Western Ontario
Fall 2013
Tuesdays 1:30 to 3:30
Weldon Library Room 258
Instructor: Geoffrey Stewart
Office Hours: Wednesdays 12:30 to 2:30 or by appointment
Phone: 519-661-2111 ext. 89268
TA: Charles McKenzie
e-mail: gstewa4@uwo.ca
Office: 2238 Lawson Hall
e-mail: cmacke22@uwo.ca
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Course Outline:
From Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show through Chuck Berry and Star Wars to Honey Boo Boo a
fascination has existed with the best and worst of American popular culture. Love it or hate it,
we are all exposed to its pervasive presence in some form or the other. This course traces the
evolution of American popular culture from its emergence as an increasingly inclusive “mass”
culture in the nineteenth century to the more fragmented and kinetic cultural productions that are
disseminated by American media—literature, television, film, music, the internet, etc.—today. It
will look at the ways in which different individuals and groups have used these various media to
try to construct and exert a cultural influence on American life. It will attempt to determine what
it is about this culture production that makes it “popular” and distinctly “American.” And it will
consider how American popular culture has influenced politics, social movements and, most
importantly, American identity at home and abroad.
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Outcomes:
Upon completing the course, students will be able to:
 Identify and describe key figures, movements, events and trends that have defined American
popular culture
 Discuss, from a historical perspective, contemporary issues in American popular culture
 Critically assess cultural productions and artifacts in through examinations, class discussions
and a written assignment
 Develop verbal and written communication skills
Textbooks:
Lewis A. Erenberg, Steppin’ Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation
of American Culture (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1981)
Glenn C. Altschuler, All Shook Up: How Rock ‘n’
Roll Changed America (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2003)
Steven Johnson, Everything Bad is Good for You (New York: Riverhead, 2006)
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Course Requirements:
Midterm Exam 30% (October 15)
Assignment 30% (Due November 12)
Final Exam 40%
Midterm and Final Exam:
There will be one Midterm exam held in class on October 15 and a Final exam held during the
December Exam period.
Assignment:
Students will write a 6 page (double-spaced) paper discussing
either a cultural artifact or production and its significance to the
evolution of American popular culture. The paper should use a
minimum of five secondary sources (books, monographs, journal
articles) from the Weldon Library including at least one journal
article and book. On-line material is acceptable only in certain
cases which must be verified by the professor or Teaching Assistant.
All citations should appear as footnotes or endnotes and follow Chicago Style in format. The
essay will be due in class* on November 12.
*Assignment Submission
Hardcopies of all assignments are to be submitted in class as well as electronically to
turnitin.com by the time that class has started.
“Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to
submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All
submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference
database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. The terms that
apply to the University’s use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com
website.”
Late assignments will be penalized 5% the first day and 2% each subsequent day.
Late assignments handed in after the last day of class will not be accepted.
Students must complete this assignment to pass the course.
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Statement on Plagiarism:
It shall be an offence for a student to commit plagiarism.
From the Academic Handbook:
Plagiarism: “The act or an instance of copying or stealing another’s words or ideas and
attributing them as one’s own.” Excerpted from Black’s Law Dictionary, West Group, 1999, 7th
ed., p. 1170.
This includes submitting a paper you have written or intend to write for another class.
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SUPPORT SERVICES:
The website for the UWO Office of the Registrar is: http://www.registrar.uwo.ca.
UWO has many services and programs that support the personal, physical, social, and academic
needs of students, in a confidential environment.
 The Student Development Centre (SDC) has trained staff and an array of services to help
students achieve their personal, academic and professional goals. See:
http://www.sdc.uwo.ca.
 The Services for Students with Disabilities office (SSD) has staff members who
specialize in assisting students with various disabilities to adjust to the university
environment. See: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca/ssd.
For information related to accessibility, including accessible routes, temporary service
disruptions, and university policies related to accessibility issues, see:
http://www.accessibility.uwo.ca/students/index.htm.
Communication:
For reasons of privacy, students should communicate with the course instructor and TA using
their UWO email addresses; all communications regarding the course will be sent to those email
addresses, rather than to other accounts (Hotmail, Gmail, etc). Students should also regularly
check the Announcements section on the course website for updates.
I recognize that, for academic purposes, students rely heavily on electronic devices such as
laptops or smartphones, and may be accustomed to using them in class for taking notes or
following the readings. My assumption is that students will be respectful of their instructor and
fellow students in using electronic devices, and will not engage in activities that distract those
around them. In the event of disruptive use of such devices, I reserve the right to request that any
device be turned off or put away; in extreme cases, a student may be asked to leave the lecture
hall.
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Lecture Schedule:
September 10 – Introduction to the Course – What is Popular Culture?
September 17 – Start the Presses: Popular Culture Forms in Antebellum America
Readings: Lewis A. Erenberg, Steppin’ Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of
American Culture (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1981), 7-32
September 24 – From Buffalo Bill to Coney Island: The Emergence of Popular Culture in the
United States
Readings: Erenberg, Steppin’ Out, 33-112
October 1 – The Jazz Age
Readings: Erenberg, Steppin’ Out,
113-207
October 8 – Radio Days
Readings: Erenberg, Steppin’ Out,
208-266
October 15 – Mid-Term
October 22 – “Hooray for Hollywood”
Readings: Glenn C. Altschuler, All
Shook Up: How Rock ‘n’
Roll Changed America
(New York: Oxford
University Press, 2003),
3-35
October 29 – “Hail, Hail, Rock n’ Roll”
Readings: Altschuler, All Shook
Up, 36-98
November 5 – Ward, June, Wally, the Beave and Jack Kerouac: Conformity and Contention in
the 1950s
Readings: Altschuler, All Shook Up, 99-130
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November 12 – The Age of Aquarius: Peace, Love and the Weather Underground
Readings: Altschuler, All Shook Up, 131-160
Assignments Due
November 19 – Sucking in the Seventies:
Watergate, the Fall of Saigon and the World
According to Archie Bunker
Readings: Altschuler, All Shook Up, 160-192
Johnson, Everything Bad is Good
for You, 1-14
November 26 – “Video Killed the Radio Star”:
From the Me Generation to Generation X
Readings: Johnson, Everything Bad is Good for
You, 15-136
December 3 – Fifty Shades of Crazy: Jon Stewart, Fox News and The Real Housewives of
Beverly Hills
Readings: Johnson, Everything Bad is Good for You, 137-211
SUPPORT SERVICES
Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Mental Health@Western
http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for a complete list of options about how to obtain
help.
Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if
you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You
may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 661-2111 x
82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.
THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
PLAGIARISM
Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take
an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation
marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a
major academic offense (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western Academic Calendar).
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All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the
commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for the detection of
plagiarism. All papers submitted will be included as source documents in the reference database for
the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the
service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between The University of Western Ontario
and Turnitin.com (http://www.turnitin.com).
The following rules pertain to the acknowledgements necessary in academic papers.
A. In using another writer's words, you must both place the words in quotation marks and
acknowledge that the words are those of another writer.
You are plagiarizing if you use a sequence of words, a sentence or a paragraph taken from
other writers without acknowledging them to be theirs. Acknowledgement is indicated either
by (1) mentioning the author and work from which the words are borrowed in the text of your
paper; or by (2) placing a footnote number at the end of the quotation in your text, and
including a correspondingly numbered footnote at the bottom of the page (or in a separate
reference section at the end of your essay). This footnote should indicate author, title of the
work, place and date of Publication and page number. Method (2) given above is usually
preferable for academic essays because it provides the reader with more information about
your sources and leaves your text uncluttered with parenthetical and tangential references. In
either case words taken from another author must be enclosed in quotation marks or set off
from your text by single spacing and indentation in such a way that they cannot be mistaken
for your own words. Note that you cannot avoid indicating quotation simply by changing a
word or phrase in a sentence or paragraph which is not your own.
B. In adopting other writer's ideas, you must acknowledge that they are theirs.
You are plagiarizing if you adopt, summarize, or paraphrase other writers' trains of argument,
ideas or sequences of ideas without acknowledging their authorship according to the method
of acknowledgement given in 'At above. Since the words are your own, they need not be
enclosed in quotation marks. Be certain, however, that the words you use are entirely your
own; where you must use words or phrases from your source; these should be enclosed in
quotation marks, as in 'A' above.
Clearly, it is possible for you to formulate arguments or ideas independently of another writer
who has expounded the same ideas, and whom you have not read. Where you got your ideas
is the important consideration here. Do not be afraid to present an argument or idea without
acknowledgement to another writer, if you have arrived at it entirely independently.
Acknowledge it if you have derived it from a source outside your own thinking on the
subject.
In short, use of acknowledgements and, when necessary, quotation marks is necessary to
distinguish clearly between what is yours and what is not. Since the rules have been
explained to you, if you fail to make this distinction, your instructor very likely will do so for
you, and they will be forced to regard your omission as intentional literary theft. Plagiarism is
a serious offence which may result in a student's receiving an 'F' in a course or, in extreme
cases, in their suspension from the University.
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MEDICAL ACCOMMODATION
The University recognizes that a student’s ability to meet his/her academic responsibilities may, on
occasion, be impaired by medical illness. Please go to
https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/medical_accommodations_link_for_OOR.pdf to read about the
University’s policy on medical accommodation. Please go to
http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/medicalform.pdf to download the necessary form. In
the event of illness, you should contact Academic Counselling as soon as possible. The Academic
Counsellors will determine, in consultation with the student, whether or not accommodation is
warranted. They will subsequently contact the instructors in the relevant courses about the
accommodation. Once a decision has been made about accommodation, the student should contact
his/her instructors to determine a new due date for term tests, assignments, and exams.
If you have any further questions or concerns please contact, Rebecca Dashford, Undergraduate
Program Advisor, Department of History, 519-661-2111 x84962 or rdashfo@uwo.ca
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